As the World Falls Down
by That Guy Who Ships Niff
Summary: 17-year-old Sam accidentally wishes his younger siblings, Stacy and Stevie, away to the Goblin Queen who will keep them if Sam does not complete her Labyrinth in 13 hours.
1. Chapter 1

_**A/N**_: It's back, guys! My cheesy rip-off of _Labyrinth_. This first chapter is a little rushed; trust me, I'm well aware.

* * *

It was a stormy evening in Nashville, Tennessee, and 17-year-old Sam Evans was in the park, dressed in D&D robes role-playing that he was a prince in a fantasy world where he was to save two children from an evil queen.

"'And so the evil Goblin Queen promises the young prince the souls of the two children, swearing that she will disappear, never to appear again, but the young prince remains skeptical of this proclamation, while the goblins wait for his choice'," Sam recited from his notebook, where he wrote out the story. The rain started to fall; Sam grabbed his notebook and ran for home. On the way, he passed by the giant clock on the real estate building, which read 6:00.

"Fuck," Sam swore; he was supposed to be home at 6 on the dot to babysit his younger brother and sister, Stevie and Stacy, and to add to the madness, he'd left his cell phone at home. When he reached the front door, his stepmother was already outside, tapping her foot in her new green dress.

"Sam, you're late," she scolded. Sam shook his blond hair of the rain and walked inside. "Sam, are you listening to me?" his stepmother walked after him.

"Yes, I heard you, and I'm sorry I'm late," Sam said, pulling off the robes.

"Where were you? The park again?" his stepmom asked. Sam didn't answer the question immediately, which made his stepmom snort derisively. "The park, Sam, you have your adult responsibilities; you can't be off in your made-up kiddie world all the time."

"I said I'm sorry, okay? I'm home and I'll babysit Stacy and Stevie." Sam ran upstairs to his room.

* * *

He put his notebook in the special place reserved for it, just above his bed, between his cell phone and the photo taken of him and his friends in the Glee club. Just looking at the picture made Sam smile; how he missed his friends in Ohio. His parents said they might be able to return just as soon as his father secured a job. Sam looked up at his collection of stuffed animals, only to find his treasured teddy bear, given to him by his biological mother, gone. He heard the front door close and he ran across the hall to find Stacy giving the bear a makeover.

"Stacy, don't!" Sam ran into the room and snatched the bear from his sister's hands.

"Sam, I wasn't hurting him," Stacy whined.

"You know you're not supposed to go in my room," Sam said bitterly, turning back towards his room.

"Sorry, Sammy," he heard Stacy whisper. Sam sighed and placed the bear back in the middle of the shelf. He walked downstairs to go watch TV when he smelled something burning from the kitchen. He ran to the kitchen and found Stevie covered in chocolate.

"Hey, Sam, I was trying to make marshmallow squares for all of us," Stevie explained. Sam simply picked up his brother and carried him upstairs. He put Stevie down next to Stacy and left the room.

"Sammy's mad at us," Sam heard Stacy whisper to Stevie.

* * *

Sam walked into his room and pulled out his notebook; he opened it to the beginning of the story and took out a pen. He heard Stacy and Stevie screaming with laughter across the hall.

"'And then the young man, not yet a prince, wished for his younger siblings to be taken by the goblins. The magic words were still unclear to the young man, but he had heard them so many times. How could he forget the words?" Sam spoke out loud as he wrote. "'But just when the young man had had enough of his siblings' mischief, he'd finally remembered the words: "Goblin Queen, Goblin Queen, wherever you may be, take these children from me, please!"" It was suddenly quiet. Thinking his siblings could've done something dangerous, he walked slowly over and opened the door, only to find Stacy's hair ribbon and a bit of Stevie's shirt collar on the floor.

"Oh my God, what have I done?" he muttered, picking up the lost items. The window burst open and Sam shielded his eyes from the wind; when it settled, he looked up to see a tall blonde woman in a tracksuit standing before him.

"You're her, aren't you? You're the Goblin Queen?" Sam asked, shocked that she existed. "I want my brother and sister back, please, if it's all the same."

"What's said is said, Trouty Mouth," the Goblin Queen said. Sam winced at the nickname he had been given back at McKinley.

"But I didn't mean it," Sam insisted.

"Oh, really? You didn't mean it?" the Queen asked.

"Please, where are they?" Sam quivered before the Queen.

"You know very well where they are, Sam."

"Please bring them back, my parents will kill me," Sam pleaded.

"Sam, return to your room. Play with your toys and costumes. Forget about the children."

"I can't." Sam felt as if he was about to cry.

"I've brought you a gift," the Queen said as she opened her hand to reveal a shiny glass object. "It's a crystal, nothing more, nothing less. If you turn it to your right and look into it, it will show you your dreams. But this is not a gift for an ordinary boy who takes care of two mischievous brats. Do you want it, Sam?" Sam nodded. "Then forget the children."

"I can't," Sam repeated. "It's not that I don't appreciate what you're trying to do, but I want my siblings back. They must be so scared."

"Evans," the Queen cut in. She turned the crystal into a rattlesnake. "Don't disobey me. You know you're no match for me. I'm giving you your dreams and you refuse them for your siblings? That's not a very wise decision."

"Where are they?" Sam asked.

"They're there," the Queen said, pointing out the window. Sam ran to the window and looked out at the labyrinth. "They're in my castle. Do you still want to look for them?"

"Is that the castle beyond the Goblin City?" Sam asked, remembering the words in his stories.

"Turn back, Trouty Mouth. Turn back before it's too late," the Queen advised as she rose and flew towards the castle.

"I can't. Don't you understand that I can't turn back? I have to find them," Sam said.

"Pity." The Queen shook her head.

"It doesn't look that far." Sam tried to make the best of a bad situation.

"It's further than you think," the Queen whispered in his ear. She then pointed to a floating clock. "You have thirteen hours in which to solve the Labyrinth, before your brother and sister becomes one of us forever." The Queen disappeared at the end of the sentence.

* * *

Sam looked out again at the Labyrinth and shook his head, trying to see if he was trapped in a dream. He wasn't. "It doesn't look far. For Stacy and Stevie's sake, I've got to try," he told himself as he walked down towards the Labyrinth's entrance. When he made it, he saw a tall, brown-haired boy standing at the wall doing his nails.

"Excuse me?" Sam asked.

The boy looked up, startled. "Excuse me yourself. Oh, it's you. Well, you've found the entrance."

"Can you help me solve the Labyrinth?" Sam asked.

"Um, I was busy, and now I have to start over. Thanks a lot," the boy snapped.

"Wow, rude much?" Sam muttered.

"Excuse me, what?" the boy looked back up and glared at Sam.

"Nothing," Sam mumbled.

"That's what I thought," the boy said, with a sniff.

"I'm Sam," Sam introduced himself.

"Kurt," the boy replied.

"Do you know where the door into the Labyrinth is?" Sam asked.

"Where's what?" Kurt scoffed.

"The Labyrinth door," Sam repeated, starting to get tired of the boy's rudeness.

"Learn to ask the right questions and you'll get more help," Kurt retorted.

"Okay, then. How do I enter the Labyrinth?" Sam pondered the question before he said it.

"Now _that_ is a question that I will answer." Kurt turned and walked away. Sam followed him. Kurt pointed to a set of revolving doors, which started to spin slowly.

"Oh, why didn't I see that?" Sam grumbled to himself.

"Yes, why didn't you?" Kurt quipped. "Hold on, are you actually going in there?" he asked as Sam walked towards the doors.

"I have to," Sam replied. He walked in and looked in both directions, confused, when Kurt showed up next to him.

"Now, since you're actually going for it, I must ask. Is it going to be a left or a right?"

"They both look the same," Sam answered.

"You're not gonna get very far with that attitude," Kurt said.

"Which way would you go?" Sam asked Kurt.

"Which way would I go? I wouldn't go either way," Kurt replied huffily.

"If you're not gonna help me, you can go," Sam said testily.

"You know what your problem is, Sam? You take way too much for granted. Take this Labyrinth for example; even if you do get to the center, you'll never get out again," Kurt pointed out.

"I think that's opinion, not fact," Sam replied.

"See, with an attitude like that, nothing," Kurt alleged.

"Thanks for nothing, Kurt," Sam snapped.

"No problem." Kurt walked out.


	2. Chapter 2

_**A/N**_: And as a short chapter, it had to include "_Magic Dance_" because I couldn't find another way to keep this going. If you leave a review, I'll love you forever.

* * *

Sam decided to take the left path and started walking; he kept walking until he was tired. Looking back the other way, everything looked exactly the same.

"Hey," a voice said. Sam stood up and spun around, looking for the source. "Hold on a second." The bricks on the wall moved to reveal a small doorway and a short brunette girl.

"Do you know the way through this Labyrinth?" Sam asked the girl.

"No, I wish I did though. It'd be nice to get out of this place myself," she replied.

"There are no twists or turns or anything. It just keeps going straight," Sam complained.

"Labyrinths are full of tricks and deceptions; in fact, there's an opening right across from you there." The girl pointed at the wall facing them. Sam saw nothing.

"There's nothing there. It's just a wall," Sam said.

"Things aren't always what they seem in a labyrinth. Just walk through it," she ordered.

Sam looked at the girl again and walked towards the wall, only to discover the wall he saw was a fake.

"Holy shit, that was incredibly helpful. Thank you," Sam said, amazed. He started to walk to the right, but the girl stopped him.

"You don't go that away unless you want to start again. Go the other way," she advised.

"Um, okay, thanks again," Sam said, walking off to the left.

The girl shook her head. "Tsk, he should've kept going that way. Right to the castle, he'd go."

Sam ran down the pathway and found himself in a whole mess of different turns. He heard distant screeching laughter.

"Oh, guys, I'm so sorry I got you into this," Sam muttered.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the castle, Stacey and Stevie were playing with the various others beside them; among them were a boy in a wheelchair, another boy with a Mohawk, and a girl with blue streaks in her black hair. The Goblin Queen walked around a table, set with an exact replica of the Labyrinth. She left the table and walked towards the center of the room, grabbing one of the boys around her.

"You remind me of the babe," she said.

"What babe?" the boy asked.

"The babe with the power," she replied.

"What power?" another boy asked.

"The power of voodoo," she said, throwing a glass ball into the air.

"Who do?" the same boy asked.

"You do," the Queen said.

"Do what?" the boy asked.

"Remind me of the babe," the Queen said. Everyone laughed until the Queen ordered, "Quiet!" She pointed at Stacey and Stevie with her scepter and said, "Goblin babes." The Queen herself began to laugh and everyone joined in.

"_I saw my baby_

_Crying hard as babe could cry_

_What could I do?_

_My baby's love had gone_

_And left my baby blue_

_Nobody knew_

_What kind of magic spell to use_,"

The Queen sang.

"Slime and snails?" the boy in the wheelchair quipped.

"Or puppy dog tails?" the girl with the blue streaks inquired.

"Thunder or lightning?" two boys in blazers asked.

"Then baby said," the Queen said.

"_Dance, magic, dance_

_Dance, magic, dance_

_Dance, magic, dance_

_Put that baby spell on me_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Put that magic jump on me_

_Slap that baby, make him free_."

* * *

While the denizens of the castle were dancing, Sam was still navigating his way through the Labyrinth. Looking down at the tiles, he pulled out a piece of chalk he happened to have on him and marked the tile he was standing on with an arrow. As he walked away, a small goblin popped out of the tile and turned it upside down. This same routine happened the next time Sam marked the spot.

* * *

In the castle, the Queen looked at her clock.

"In nine hours and twenty-three minutes, you'll both be mine," she said.

"_I saw my baby_

_Trying hard as babe could try_

_What could I do?_

_My baby's fun had gone_

_And left my baby blue_

_Nobody knew_

_What kind of magic spell to use_."

"Slime and snails?" the boy in the wheelchair asked.

"Puppy dog tails?" the girl with the streaks asked.

"Thunder or lightning?" the boy in the wheelchair and the Mohawk boy asked.

"Then baby said," the Queen said.

"_Dance, magic, dance_

_Dance, magic, dance_

_Dance, magic, dance_

_Put that baby spell on me_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Jump, magic, jump_

_Put that magic jump on me_

_Slap that baby, make him free_."


	3. Chapter 3

Sam retraced his steps and saw that his marks were gone.

"Son of a bitch, this Labyrinth is fucking with me. This is so unfair," he muttered.

"That's right, it ain't fair." Sam heard a girl's voice. Expecting to see the brunette, he turned to see two girls, one blonde, and the other with a black ponytail.

"Hold on, this was a dead end a minute ago." Sam looked back to see the way that he came in was now a dead end.

"Things are always changing in this place. We haven't found a way out in months," the girl with the black hair explained.

"Where does this door go?" Sam asked, walking up to a huge door with a gold handle.

"That door leads to certain death," the blonde said. "And that other one," she pointed to a door with a bronze handle, "is the right way."

"Don't listen to her, she's lying to you. She always lies," the black-haired girl cut in.

"Santana, I do not," the blonde retorted. "Santana is the one that lies," she said to Sam.

"I tell the truth, unlike Brittany here," Santana said. "Do you remember what happened when you said that Lord Tubbington was reading your diary? We found out it was Charity," Santana said to Brittany.

As the girls continued to bicker, Sam went for the door with the gold handle, seeing as how gold is usually a good thing. He fell through the ground immediately as the two girls finally realized what had happened and were looking down where he had just fallen.

"I told him to go to the bronze one," Brittany said.

"Reason I told him to go the other way was because his hair reminds me of that Canadian wannabe rapper," Santana remarked.

* * *

Meanwhile, back at the castle (and Sam was still falling), the Queen was gazing through her crystal; she released the crystal and it continued to float as she paced around, looking peeved.

"What's wrong, Your Highness?" one of the blazered boys asked.

"The boy shouldn't have gotten this far. He should've given up by now," the Queen replied.

"He won't give up until he gets the children," the girl with the streaks said.

"Well, that gay kid should be finding him soon and leading him back to the beginning," the Queen said with a smirk. "When he finds out that he has to start over, he'll give up."

* * *

Sam had landed on something soft, but he was surrounded by the darkness.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" he asked.

"Oh, you're back," a voice said. A candle was lit and Sam saw it was Kurt.

"How did you know I was here?" Sam asked.

"I knew you'd get into trouble somehow, so I figured I'd come and help you," Kurt replied. "As you can see, there are no doors here, only the hole."

"Then how do I get out?" Sam asked, and then mentally smacking himself because he knew Kurt would say something snarky about his question.

"This hole is an oubliette, a place to put people to forget about them," Kurt explained. "I do know a shortcut out of the Labyrinth, if you want."

"No way, dude," Sam said. He noticed Kurt glare at him when he said "dude". "I'm gonna solve this Labyrinth; I need to save Stacy and Stevie."

"Well, then you shouldn't have summoned the Queen then," Kurt muttered. Sam looked up at Kurt's rudeness and glared at him, but he didn't move. "Look, if you have anything of worth, I will help you out of here."

"You were going to lead me out anyway!" Sam exclaimed. Kurt shrugged and started walking away. "Okay, look, I do have this," Sam said, digging into his pocket, "it's a scarf. My mom made it before she died. She told me to give it to someone who would need it the most. I'll give it to you if you lead me as far as you can towards the center."

"Wow, that scarf is beautiful," Kurt said, admiring the scarf. "If I take you as far as I can, I can have the scarf?" he asked, looking hopefully up at Sam, who nodded. "Okay, fine, I'll do it, but don't tell anyone, especially the Queen." Kurt walked over to a corner, where he tossed some stuff out of the way and lifted a door from the pile. He opened the door and a broom fell out. "Damn broom closet," Sam heard him mutter. Kurt closed the door and opened it from the other side, to reveal the sunlight.

* * *

As Kurt led Sam into a cave, they found an odd figure that resembled a duck, but the figure threw off its cloak to reveal the Queen, who looked pissed.

"Porcelain, were you leading the boy to the castle?" she asked.

"His name is Kurt," Sam interrupted. The Queen glared at him and he fell silent.

"No, Your Majesty," Kurt replied, turning red and shooting an apologetic look to Sam. "I told him that I'd take him to the castle when I was really going to take him back to the beginning, you know, a little manipulation."

"You little sneak," Sam snapped, reaching to grab Kurt who ducked away.

"Tickle-Me Doe Face, what is that around your neck?" The Queen asked.

"What, this?" he looked surprised, putting a hand on the scarf. "I found it on the ground outside."

"Lady, if I found out that you were going to betray me, I would have you put headfirst into the Bog of Eternal Stench," the Queen said.

"Oh, Your Majesty, please, not the Eternal Stench." Kurt bowed down and kissed the Queen's hand.

"By the way, Sam, how are you enjoying my beloved Labyrinth?" the Queen turned to Sam.

"It's easy," he replied and Kurt groaned.

"Easy, is it? Well, then, how about upping the stakes?" the Queen suggested. With a hand, a small clock suddenly appeared and she spun the clock an hour and half ahead.

"That's not fair," Sam said.

"You say that so often it gets old," the Queen replied, her smirk growing wider. "You say the Labyrinth is easy. I'm going to make it a little harder and see how you feel afterwards." She used her hands to create a new crystal, which she threw into the dark tunnel. The crystal turned into a giant cylinder with sharp spinning hands connected.

"Shit," Kurt said. "It's the Cleaner. Run, Sam, now!" Kurt took off in the opposite direction; Sam took a moment before he followed.

The two ran until they hit a locked chamber door. "Shit, both the Cleaner and the Bog of Eternal Stench," Kurt said. "You really got her attention now, haven't you?" Sam found a wall and started banging on it; Kurt joined him and the two boys hit the wall, trying to fight a way out until the wall collapsed and they were in a small entryway.

* * *

"Whoa, that was close," Sam said, with a heavy sigh.

"You got that right," Kurt muttered. "Hey, a ladder," he said, seeing a ladder. "Come on, follow me."

"Wait a minute," Sam snapped, grabbing Kurt by the collar and holding him against the wall. "You just told the Queen you were going to take me back to the beginning. How am I supposed to trust you, huh?"

"I just said that to throw the bitch off," Kurt said haughtily, trying to remove Sam's hand from his collar. "Besides, what other choice do you have?" Sam released Kurt and ran a hand through his hair. Kurt started climbing the ladder and Sam followed.

"So what's this thing you have with the Queen?" Sam asked on the way up.

"You have to understand the position I'm in here," Kurt replied.

"What position is that?" Sam asked.

"No position, that's the problem," Kurt said.

"What's the Bog of Eternal Stench?" Sam asked, although he already kind of figured what it was.

"Could the name be any less obvious? It's a bog and it creates eternal stench; in short, you set one foot in there, the smell never goes away," Kurt explained.

* * *

_**A/N**_: As if I haven't stolen enough material from Jim Henson...but since I have so much love for him, let's call it an homage.


End file.
